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New 7hr battery lasts around 3.5 hrs - does this warrant a warranty return?

brendu said:
I am also curious... Using my 6 month old umbp13" i've been getting under 4 hours just browsing this site and engadget... not using flash, no audio... im not really upset because it still lasts plenty long enough for most of my needs, but I am curious, anyone who has gotten a new battery, what were you experiencing and how did you go about getting a new one from apple? What is their procedure for determining if you "need" a new one?
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Do the coconutbattery test to see your battery's health.

You say you are not using flash- but are you using a flash-blocker? There are flash ads on those sites. You should download Click2Flash, and then see what your battery life is.

The procedure will be similar to the OP's. You'll take your MBP to the Genius Bar, and they'll test your battery. If there's something wrong with it, I would guess that they would replace it.
 
Cassie said:
From what I've heard, to get 7 hours, Apple basically turns the machine on, logs in, and times how long it takes to die. (Not literally, but they definitely aren't doing much.) That's just how Apple works.
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No, like every company that does battery life claims, they list what they did to get that to cover their asses.

From apple:

" 13-inch MacBook Pro testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 using preproduction 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro units. 15-inch MacBook Pro testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 using preproduction 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro units with a Better Battery Life setting. 17-inch MacBook Pro testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 using preproduction 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro units with a Better Battery Life setting. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%."

So thats how they get their measurements.
 
ncdasa said:
I can accept this, but considering that 15 minutes of skype only accounts for approx. 6% of the time I was actually using the battery, how much power could it actually use in that time? If 6.25% of skype usage can make a significant dent, causing hours of disparity in the batteries performance, then it just goes to underscore that this battery sucks. Skype is not that powerful. I mean rendering video in Final Cut isnt even that powerful.
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You're not quite thinking about it correctly. Burning a CD takes what... 2 minutes? Percentage by time is minimal, but percentage by power is much higher since disc drives are power-hungry. Thus, your 6% usage of Skype by time doesn't translate directly to 6% power consumption. I won't hazard a guess as to what the percentage actually is, but any kind of video and/or audio is going to take up more power than ... not video or audio.

I am saying that mine isnt performing the way it is supposed to and the way that other peoples is. If I got up to 9 hours like you (or even half of that) then believe me I wouldnt be here and as far as I would be concerned there would be no problem (with mine) either.
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Fair enough. Unforunately the powers that be disagree with your assessment, so you're probably not going to get a [free] replacement.
 
Surely said:
Do the coconutbattery test to see your battery's health.

You say you are not using flash- but are you using a flash-blocker? There are flash ads on those sites. You should download Click2Flash, and then see what your battery life is.

The procedure will be similar to the OP's. You'll take your MBP to the Genius Bar, and they'll test your battery. If there's something wrong with it, I would guess that they would replace it.
Click to expand...

I do not use flash blockers but at least with macrumors, I do not have any ads on my page... engadget is a different story... I do use coconut battery and im at 84% original battery capacity after 6 months and 76 Load cycles... I guess thats not too bad, but im trying to get it higher... mostly I just wanted to know if anyone has gotten a replacement from apple, and if so, how did they determine it?
 
brendu said:
I do not use flash blockers but at least with macrumors, I do not have any ads on my page... engadget is a different story... I do use coconut battery and im at 84% original battery capacity after 6 months and 76 Load cycles... I guess thats not too bad, but im trying to get it higher... mostly I just wanted to know if anyone has gotten a replacement from apple, and if so, how did they determine it?
Click to expand...

First I would calibrate the battery to make sure you get an accurate reading.
 
brendu said:
hmmm, perhaps I will.. would they just swap the batt out on site?
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No clue, thats if they even replace it. You going to have to make a good case, id bring up apples "1000 cycles to 80%" claim for starters
 
That is good to know about the "1000 cycles before 80%" claim. Mine is at 96% and has only 20 load cycles. At this rate it will definitely not meet that claim.

And on top of this, one of the reasons iam having such a hard time accepting this is because I just replaced a 3 yr old 13" macbook with this one, and that one had a battery that was almost 2 yrs old and could still last around 4 hours, but that is with Final Cut, unrestricted web browsing, vlc (i.e movies), and basically whatever else i wanted.

Now I know I got lucky with that battery because I had one before that that certainly did not perform that well by a long shot. That was some sort of super battery I guess. :rolleyes:
 
I think that one thing to remember is a laptop isn't REALLY all about being able to use it on battery power. The key is portability, and having a battery is convenient if you are running between offices until you can plug in again, in which case even 4 hours is plenty. Say for example when I take my computer to a hotel, I don't plan on using it on battery power, I plug it in when I get inside and there ya go, no need to worry about battery life then. Just my 2 cents I suppose.

I also think "laptop" is a bad, misleading term. The correct term, IMHO, should be "portable computer" because thats really what they are.
 
13' UMBP 7hr battery usage with external hdd (watching movies only)

OK, so im looking into the new unibody macbook pros (13')
because of the 7hr alleged battery life ( i currently have a 17' percision body mbp but trying to sell it because like i said, i need the battery life)

anyways, i was talking to a mac specialist at the apple store and i was asking him about the battery life and everything and what he said was

that if i was to play movies off an external portable hdd (1tb usb power only)
i would get better battery life because its not running directly off the computer?

is this true?

and if so, could someone try this out for me?

just get a portable hdd (usb power only)
plug it in, play a movie and let me know what kind of battery life your getting?


that would be greaat.

im about to go to afghanistan for a year with the marine corps and one i leave im stuck with whatever i have so if the new umbp's get the battery life they say then ill get it.

thanks. all replies are appreciated.
:apple:
 
NT1440 said:
No clue, thats if they even replace it. You going to have to make a good case, id bring up apples "1000 cycles to 80%" claim for starters
Click to expand...

Battery decay isn't linear though. So that 84% could be still at 84% even at 1000 cycles. If its not under 80%, Apple usually won't replace a battery.
 
MaCaTtAcKiSbAcK said:
OK, so im looking into the new unibody macbook pros (13')
because of the 7hr alleged battery life ( i currently have a 17' percision body mbp but trying to sell it because like i said, i need the battery life)

anyways, i was talking to a mac specialist at the apple store and i was asking him about the battery life and everything and what he said was

that if i was to play movies off an external portable hdd (1tb usb power only)
i would get better battery life because its not running directly off the computer?

is this true?

and if so, could someone try this out for me?

just get a portable hdd (usb power only)
plug it in, play a movie and let me know what kind of battery life your getting?


that would be greaat.

im about to go to afghanistan for a year with the marine corps and one i leave im stuck with whatever i have so if the new umbp's get the battery life they say then ill get it.

thanks. all replies are appreciated.
:apple:
Click to expand...

I dont know what to tell you. It seems almost hit or miss. After reading around i am seeing that a lot of people are getting the same results I am (that is 3.5 hours just web browsing w/ moderate system settings like the screen brightness and keyboard). This is way below what you would expect from their advertising and is quite disappointing, especially considering (and I know I have mentioned this a bunch of times on this thread) that my previous Macbook got at least 4 hours with unlimited web browsing, VLC, Final Cut, etc, etc. You would think a bigger battery with newer technology would AT LEAST MATCH THAT :mad:

Anyway, putting both my reasonable and sentimental gripes aside, I think you should go for the 13 in. If you are lucky you will get one that actually works like it is supposed to (or somewhere near that), and if you are unlucky you will get one that lasts at around 3.5 hours, which will urk the $#!† out of you but will probably be around whatever you are getting from the older models before the built-in batteries. I know it sucks to have to depend on these kinds of antics from apple :(

As far as the using an external USB drive, I have never heard of that. It may take less than the internal drive and i guess I could try it, but i imagine it wouldnt be by much. Maybe running off a USB thumb drive, that would probably save your battery
 
Surely said:
From what I see, the Genius is right.

Your battery looks great.

Here is mine, just for comparison's sake:
Click to expand...

Just curious about something , how can your current load capacity be greater than your original load capacity ?

I thought batteries weaken over time , how can that be accurate ?
 
No programs needed

Go to the apple icon upper left, click on "about this mac", then "more info", then go down to "power" and you will get all the information you need!!
 
I just got my new unibody macbook 5 days ago and the battery health already dropped to 92% after only 4 cycles. Is this normal? Should I be worried?

mr2zoi.png
 
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